All the King's men: Part 13 (Understanding the government)

Raju and Vani aunty got down at Kyathsandra and started walking towards the Shanbhag office.

“Aunty, what is the meaning of Shanbhag? And why he is called as ‘village accountant, instead of ‘village officer’ or ‘village revenue officer’?”

“Shanbhag means ‘writer’ in Sanskrit. As I explained to you, the British administration system started from the top and went till the bottom, which are villages.

At the state or provincial level, we had the commissioners, and below them the deputy commissioners. Below them were the Assistant commissioners. Below each Assistant commissioner, we had Tahsildars.

Tahsildar meant, ‘Tax collector’, and this word has been there since Mughal days. ‘Tahsil’ meant collection and ‘Dar’ meant the person, thus Tahsildar meant the person who collected the Tax.

Thus, in olden days, the Tahsildar was the person at the local level who collected the tax from the people. He was authorized by the king to collect tax on behalf of the king. He was also authorized to fix the tax rate; add or reduce the tax. It meant, that he conducted court like a judge and decided any quarrels in the taxation, or land ownership or even granted government land to the landless or deserving, who can cultivate and give revenue to the king. Later, during British time, they were given magisterial power too.

The Tahsildar used to sit at the Tehsil (Taluka) Headquarters, which was normally a small town of having more than 10,000 populations those days. The Taluka town used to be connected from the District, by an all weather road, meaning that motor vehicle can travel from the district to the Taluka town round the year, irrespective of monsoon and rains.

But, from the Taluka town (headquarters) to villages, there were fewer, or no all weather roads those days. It used to mud-tracks or cart-tracks. So, most of the times, the travel used to be in horses or horse-carts.

It meant that the Taluka boundaries generally coincided with the distance a horse can travel comfortably in day time, that is, around 30 kms.

As the Tahsildar can’t travel to all the villages in his area every-day, there was a need to have somebody to keep track of the tax issues in the villages, like details of the crops grown, ownership of the land etc. These details are crucial for the collection for revenue.

To keep an account of all these data, the Tahsildars appointed accountants, and each accountant for keeping account books for 2-3 villages. That’s how we have village ‘accountants’ and not ‘village officers’! And ‘accountants’ were called as ‘Shanbhags’ in Sanskrit! Oh, God, what a long answer to your question!”

“Oh thanks Aunty! Now I get a clear picture. I think the village accountants, who were primarily appointed for taking care of the accounts of the villages, were given additional works later?”

“You are right Raju! As the village accountant, we will call him ‘Shanbhag’ from now onwards, had data about the owners of the land, their land holdings etc, it become easy for him to give information on any additional work.”

“Aunty, I have heard about these Revenue Inspectors. Who are they?”

“Oh, they came later. When the work load of the Village accountants increased, there was a need to supervise them. Also, the Tahsildar’s work load increased and he could no more concentrate fully on the revenue issues.

So, they appointed ‘revenue Inspectors’ who started touring and inspecting the work and accounts of the Shanbhags. So for every 4-5 Shanbhags we will have one Revenue Inspector. And his area is called as a circle.”

“Hmm. Very detailed administrative system. Let me recollect; Commissioner at the state level, then Deputy Commissioner at district, assistant commissioners to assist him, then Tahsildar at the Taluka level, Naib-Tahsildars to assist him, Revenue Inspectors for revenue circles, below them Shanbhags for group of villages!”

“Lol, you are right! Just that we left one more level. Between the commissioner at the state and the deputy commissioner at the district, there is one more level; the divisional commissioner! He is in charge for a group of districts. Presently they are called as Regional commissioners. In Karnataka, we have four regional commissioners, sitting at Bangalore, Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga.”

“Oh God! So many levels?! And still the common man is unhappy with the administration?”

“Yes my dear! Come let’s find out the reason why the common man is not happy! We have reached the Shanbhag office!”

Both Raju and Aunty stood before the building. There was no name board. But, one could see people around. Some were inside that front room, and few standing outside.

Both entered the room, and looked for the big table and the main person seated there. But, they didn’t find any! But, suddenly somebody appeared in their front.

“What do you want? What is the work?”

“We want to meet the Shanbhag sir.”

“Oh, he is busy. You tell me what the work is. I will get it done. Which village you are from? Caste certificate? Income certificate? I can get done in 24 hours. Or any land issue?”

Raju could gather that he is not a official and must be a middle-man who are present in most of the government offices. He wondered why they need to be there, if the Shanbhag can do the work of the public immediately.

“No, I need to meet the Shanbhag only. Can you help me?”

 “But, why you want to meet him? He is always busy. You can’t meet him. Where are you coming from?”

“We are from Bangalore. We need to meet him.”

“Oh, from Bangalore! I guessed. But, he is not free now. Anyway he is going to Tahsildar office for meeting. And next two days he is busy with census work. You can come next week.”

“When next week?”

“You want exact day?! Nobody knows! You come and check your luck. You are not ready to trust us to do your work. Then why you are asking so many questions to me?”

“Ok. Can you tell me where is his tour programme which will tell when he is here?”

“That I don’t have. Ask the ‘gram shahayak’”.

“Aunty, who is this Shahayak?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. To assist the Shanbhag, each village has one ‘Gram Shahayak’ or assistant.”

“Oh, another official paid by the government? Ok, let me check up when we will get to meet the all powerful Shanbhag.”

“Let’s ask the Gram shahayak Raju.”

With those words, another person sitting in the table looked at them. “What do you want?”

“Oh you are the gram shahayak? We want to meet the Shanbhag. When he will be available? As per his tour programme when is supposed to be here in this office? We heard that from 3.30 to 5.30, all government officers should be available in their offices? If he is not here now, maybe we have to complaint to the Deputy Commissioner.”

It was like a bomb dropped. There was a minute silence. All looked at Raju. And then, then somebody entered the room from the adjoining small room. A middle aged man, round faced, oiled hair pressed to his head firmly, with an half-authoritative voice asked, “Who wants to complaint to the DC? What complaint you want to make?”

“Sir, I am Raju. This is my Aunty, Vani. We came to meet the Shanbhag during the visitor’s time. Still the persons here said that he is busy and we can’t meet him. They also refused to tell us when he will be available.”

He looked at Raju and Vani Aunty. Then said, “I am the Shanbhag. Mallikarjun. Now, will you tell me what do you want?”

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(to be continued next Sunday...)